G20 Meet At Gandhinagar: India Aims To Reach Consensus On Crypto Regulation

While India has been aiming to reach a policy consensus on crypto assets to form better global regulation during its Group of 20 (G20) presidency itself, G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors will have talks around cryptocurrencies during their meeting in Gandhinagar.

The G20 meeting that started on July 16 is going to end on July 18.

Deciding whether a unified regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies and crypto assets can be established remains one key objective of this meeting under India’s presidency.

To find a common road to regulate the crypto industry, Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors will brainstorm ideas, CNBC reported. Safeguarding national and macroeconomic security, investor protection and encouraging innovation, would remain in focus as well.

G20 leaders will also review the reports prepared by the Financial Stability Board, OECD, IMF and Bank for International Settlements on the issue.

Considering concerns of emerging and developing economies and non G20 members into the policy framework is also one of the objectives. Among other issues, capacity building measures will be also discussed to strengthen enforcement power of regulators.

The initial focus will be on countries with higher adoption of crypto assets, internationally active exchanges and where large stablecoin issuers are located.

Soon after India took over the G20 presidency last December, India’s federal economic affairs secretary Ajay Seth informed that the G20 countries are trying to reach a policy consensus on crypto assets to form better global regulation.

Later, Seth also informed that India is working with the Financial Stability Board (FSB) to reach a consensus on regulating cryptocurrencies during the country’s G20 presidency itself.

The FSB, established in 2009 after the G20 summit, is an international body that monitors and makes recommendations about the global financial system.

The industry is also awaiting regulations as lack of clarity on cryptocurrencies in India and the contradictory statements from the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have also affected crypto startups. Pillow, Flint and WeTrade are crypto startups which decided to wind down their businesses over the last few months due to regulatory uncertainty.

RBI has been talking about crypto ban, whereas the Indian government has not talked about any blanket ban as yet. However, the Economic Survey 2022-23 highlighted the pervasive nature of cryptos and called for global regulations.